Free Republic

Quite the takedown. https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1637931810519941121?s=20

307 jobs are under threat at online payment firm PayPal’s offices in Dublin and Dundalk in County Louth. The company is opening a consultation with impacted staff who have been notified about the situation. The roles that are being targeted for compulsory redundancy are across a range of functions. 135 of the positions are based in company’s Dublin office in Blanchardstown, while the remaining 172 roles are in the County Louth town. PayPal has stressed that the decision does not change its commitment to Ireland. “PayPal remains committed to Ireland and our Dublin and Dundalk sites will continue to be...

Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick slammed American Airlines on Thursday evening after the airline called out the state’s new security measures to protect elections, claiming that a representative from the company called him and told him that the head of the company didn’t even read the bill. “Earlier this morning, the Texas State Senate passed legislation with provisions that limit voting access,” American Airlines said in a statement that echoed remarks made by leftists who have attacked recent measures to secure elections across the country. “To make American’s stance clear: We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like...

In all Trump gave us — the good, the bad, the hilarious, and the unsettling — his administration brought much-needed clarity to the GOP and the country.At the end of his second term, amid the early retrospectives about his presidency, George W. Bush reportedly remarked, “the true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now.” It was a wise reminder that the passage of time generally yields a more honest, dispassionate analysis of events than is often allowed by the heated political present.While we are left to wonder how history will judge the last four years of...

CANADA: Gee…who could possibly hate dogs so much that they would scatter broken glass all over a dog park ? JULY 22, 2019 BY BARENAKEDISLAM Dog walkers say someone appears to be intentionally placing thousands of pieces of broken glass in the ground all around Dave Bartlett Park, an off-leash dog park in Manotick. CTV News via VladTepesBlog Dog walkers fear someone is deliberately trying to harm their dogs. “Nobody thinks this is an accident,” said Dana McPhail. “There was 50, 60 people here yesterday everybody was upset and everybody was saying somebody doesn’t want this dog park here; somebody...

The federal government’s partial shutdown is affording the opportunity for Americans to see some of the D.C.’s most self-serving politics, but also the reality that we have large swaths of the federal government that are non-essential. And some of it really, really is non-essential — as in unneeded — and should be simply eliminated to the benefit of taxpayers and all Americans who are not politically connected. But perhaps even more portions of the federal government could be radically altered to make the behemoth far more responsive to Americans, rather than holding them hostage to the deplorable and corruptive condition...

President Donald Trump’s administration will have the option to lay off all furloughed government workers after their furlough reaches 30 days. President Trump is now on Day 26 of the shutdown, and he has not signed any bill to guarantee back pay for furloughed workers. President Trump can save taxpayers more than $1 billion per week if he lays off the approximately 800,000 non-essential government workers who are not getting paid. That would save enough money to cover the cost of Trump’s wall in six weeks, or three pay periods. The trade site The Balance Careers previously published an explainer...

Federal workers and contractors not getting paid have had to resort to seeking handouts as the record-breaking shutdown continues for a fourth week. In Washington, DC, the line for free meals stretched down Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol because workers say any little bit helps when no money is coming in. “Accepting that I’m here is demoralizing,” said a teary Blen Woldearegay, a Department of Interior contractor who is worried about possible foreclosure on her new home. “It’s hard. It’s hurtful. I’m not the type of person that likes to do that [ask for help] just...

... A new statement from the Office of Management and Budget provides cold comfort for federal bureaucrats worried that furloughs during the partial shutdown could become permanent layoffs, as long as Democrats refuse to give in and fund the border barrier. There will be no immediate layoffs (what the federal government calls reductions-in-force – or RIFs) if and when the current partial shutdown passes the 30 day mark in 4 more days. As I explained yesterday in Trump's shutdown trap?, federal law requires RIFs when federal employees are furloughed more than 30 days... This emphatically does not rule out the...

Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy? In only 5 more days of the already-“longest government shutdown in history” (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more.

Agencies won’t need to consider targeted layoffs, otherwise known as reductions-in-force (RIFs), if the current partial government shutdown continues for another few days. While federal statute typically instructs agencies to RIF targeted groups of employees who have been placed on furlough status for 30 days or more, the regulations don’t apply to emergency furlough situations, the Office of Management and Budget confirmed Tuesday. Some astute Federal News Network readers had questioned whether their agencies could RIF furloughed employees if the current government shutdown, now at 25 days and counting, hits the 30-day mark. There are two kinds of furloughs. “Administrative...

Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy? In only five more days of the already-“longest government shutdown in history” (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more. Don’t believe me that federal bureaucrats can be laid off? Well, in bureaucratese, a layoff is called a RIF – a Reduction in Force, and of course, it comes with a slew of civil service protections. But, if the guidelines are followed,...

When James McHugh typed up a batch of letters the other day, his boss sent them back. ''They were red-penciled,'' said Mr. McHugh unhappily. ''I had to do them over again.'' As a secretary, McHugh, who once directed a staff of 10 people and administered $27 million in Federal grants, does not know his carbon paper from his Ko-Rec-Type. Yet the Federal Government is paying him $46,000 a year to type. ... In a bizarre twist, the Federal use of the "reduction in force," or RIF, has turned thousands of highly paid specialists like Mr. McHugh into secretaries, file clerks...

SIERRA VISTA — Fort Huachuca will see a reduction of about 114 soldiers from its active duty population over the course of the next three years as part of an Army-wide reduction of 40,000 soldiers and 17,000 civilian employee personnel announced by the Department of the Army on Thursday. The cut represents less than 5 percent of the active duty permanent party personnel on post, said Tanja Linton, media relations officer. “We do not yet have a specific breakdown by command to identify which positions will be reduced,” Linton said. Neither did the fort have any specifics on any reduction...

One of my readers is an underemployed 59-year-old man from among us here in the South Suburbs. Call him Harry. He works in information technology. Slowly and wearily, he says: "Once you get past 50, I swear, it gets tough, it gets really tough." For instance, Harry applied for a job with a city of Chicago department that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He got an offer for some contract work. There were no benefits, but it was a paying job. A woman from the city called him one Monday morning and wanted to know if...

"NEW YORK: New York Times Co yesterday said it would cut about 4 per cent of its work force, or 500 jobs, and warned that weaker newspaper advertising and rising costs could reduce earnings to less than half of Wall Street forecasts this quarter."

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) -- A car bomb exploded near the police headquarters in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses said. Twenty cars were set ablaze after the massive blast, and at least 10 charred bodies could be scene in the street. Police Lt. Sha'alan Allawi said the bomber drove a vehicle into a parking lot park inside the police building and detonated it. Tikrit, located 80 miles north of the Iraqi capital, is former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown.

WASHINGTON, July 8 - The Army is looking for a few good sailors and airmen. Actually, more than just a few. In what some military experts see as another sign of how the Army's commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan have strained it, the service for the first time will soon begin aggressively recruiting thousands of sailors and airmen who are otherwise scheduled to leave the Navy and Air Force because of cutbacks. Advertisement Under a new program called Operation Blue to Green, the Army plans to offer bonuses of up to $10,000, in some cases, and four weeks of extra...

<p>Germany and the United States yesterday pledged to coordinate a reduction of American troops and military bases in Germany in the coming years, a further sign that both sides are moving past the divisions over the Iraq war.</p> <p>German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who joined France and Russia in a alliance against the U.S.-led war, makes his first visit to the White House in more than two years later this month.</p>

February 5, 2004 ARLINGTON, Va. — Facing manning excesses, the Air Force has announced it needs to get rid of 16,600 airmen over the next 18 months. Soaring retention rates and stop-loss orders have boosted the service's manning levels beyond the authorized end strength of 359,000, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper said in a Jan. 29 message to the force.As a result, "By the end of [fiscal] 2005, we should reduce the size of our active force by 16,000 people, and we must reshape the force to correct existing skill imbalances and account for a new...